


Euthanasia

by Anxious_Procrastinating



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 04:40:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7494138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anxious_Procrastinating/pseuds/Anxious_Procrastinating
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During his exile Laxus pays a little visit to his and the Raijinshuu's Edolas counterparts. Edo!Fraxus. Rated Mature for the controversial theme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Euthanasia

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hi everyone! :) I wrote this story because I'm really curious about what the Edolas versions of Laxus and the Raijinshuu might be like and, as many people on this website, I was really disappointed that Mashima never showed them to us. When I first thought about it, it wasn't meant to become like this, I guess things got a bit out of hand :P I'd just like to say something before you read: I know this is a pretty controversial theme, everyone has their own opinion. Mine is reflected in this story. I don't mean to offend anyone with this and I don't want to impose anything, I respect everyone's ideas. I hope you like it! :)
> 
> (Posted on FF.net on 12/03/2016)

It was a day like every other to Laxus, who was wandering in a desert heading to nowhere in particular. Since he'd been exiled, 3 weeks earlier, days just repeated themselves as the lightning mage reflected on what he'd done. But even as his mind was occupied by thoughts of self-contempt and guilt, boredom had started to settle in and Laxus started missing even the most complicated missions and the most obnoxious monsters he'd fought, because even if he got nervous, at least he wasn't this bored. The music in his Sound Pod always kept him company, but by now it had just become a constant background to his ears which perceived it as nothing new. Always if they even registered its presence.

At some point though, Laxus's day suddenly became interesting: the weather suddenly turned stormy, the clouds gathered in the sky and a huge hole formed in the mist above him and sucked him up. He tried to fight it, but the wind was too strong and he found himself flying through the vortex of black clouds and landing on the ground again. He hit his head and passed out. He woke up several hours later in a forest. He knew that he wasn't in the same place as before. His inner Captain Obvious was emerging. The thing that worried him the most was that he couldn't use his magic. He'd have to be careful and find a way back.

He walked for a bit and then found himself out of the forest he'd been catapulted in. He checked his surroundings and saw that the trees circled a square in the middle of which there was a big hospital. What immediately caught his eye though, were three people sitting on a bench. They were his Raijinshuu, what the heck were they doing there? Had something bad happened? He wanted to rush to them, hug the shit out of them and ask them what was wrong, why they were so gloomy. But moving closer, he realized that they actually were pretty different from the guys he remembered: Ever's hair was cut short. She hated short hair, she said that it wasn't feminine. She had no glasses, but one of her eyes was completely white as if she were blind in it. She didn't wear any make up. She had a pair of jeans, snickers, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt on. Not that he didn't think that she looked good in that, but it was pretty slovenly compared to her usual attire. Since she always blabbered about beauty and elegance and fairies and whatnot it was weird to see her like that. Freed was unrecognizable. Well, physically that guy looked like him: green long hair (the lightning-shaped locks were missing though), indigo eyes, mole under the right one. The only difference was that he was a bit more muscular. But he was chewing a chewing-gum. Laxus knew for sure that Freed hated those things due to the fact that when he was a kid, bullies would always attach them to his hair. He said that he didn't even want to eat them. Instead there he was. Chewing gum. His way of sitting was weird too. For a guy who usually was the embodiment of composure, sitting with his legs wide open, sprawled on the bench with his arms lolling behind it...uncommon to say the least. And he kept his ripped jeans low so that his underwear could be seen. Seriously, who was that guy? Bickslow was the weirdest of all. He should have been doing what Freed was doing and talking nonsense with his babies. First of all, where were the babies?! Laxus couldn't spot them anywhere and the thing started to worry him. Then he was mute. For a guy who was capable of melting your brains just by opening his mouth, that surely was uncommon. Then his tattoo was missing and the visor over his eyes too. Maybe his powers didn't work in that place either? He knew that it would be reckless it if were otherwise right? His attire was black, and matched his ink black hair, no longer styled in a cool mohawk, but similar to Natsu's, just a bit longer, so that the bangs covered his eyes. Looking at him like that was kind of depressing. Well, he looked depressed. As well as the other two. Laxus didn't get any closer, he wondered if they were on an undercover mission. It seemed unlikely to him, something was...off with them, but if that was the case, he didn't want to screw things up.

"I guess that it's no problem if we go in now, right? I mean, it's only 20 minutes before the start of the visiting hours" said Bickslow at a certain point.

"20 minutes? Well, the nurses are kind..." replied Evergreen.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Freed decided: "Come on, let's go in, I can't wait any longer"

Laxus knew he should have gone away, but he was way too curious to know what they were doing, so he followed them keeping his distance and trying to go unnoticed by other people. As they passed through various halls and corridors, doctors and nurses said hello to them, calling them by their names. Then they went there frequently. What was weird was that if that was un undercover mission, people shouldn't have known their true names. But at least now Laxus was 100% sure that it was them and that he wasn't stalking some strangers. His friends entered in a room of the intensive care unit, he hid behind the wall and peered inside. He saw them sitting close to the person in the bed, Freed never leaving his hand. Laxus knew it was a he from the hoarse, weak voice he heard coming from him, barely above a whisper. Then he kissed him. On his mouth. Using his tongue. Saying that Laxus was dumbstruck was really a euphemism. Not that Laxus didn't know that Freed was into guys or that he wasn't happy for him, but first seeing his Raijinshuu like that, then being familiar with a context that he didn't know anything about. Then this. It was a lot of information to gain in one single day. Plus, he had no idea of why his best friends would hide such things from him. Had he become too much of a bastard lately? Had they lost faith in him? Had he lost their trust? He didn't even want to think about it. He decided to leave his reflections to later and kept observing.

All three of them spent hours telling the guy in the bed the events of the day, stories and jokes, playing and laughing together or, to put it simply, keeping him company. At a certain point though, the mystery man had a coughing fit. All three of them immediately rushed to his side, trying to be helpful by holding his head, patting his shoulders or passing him handkerchiefs. Laxus smelled blood and understood the reason for the latter action. As they realized that the coughing fit was turning into respiratory failure, Bickslow ran out of the room to call for help. A little squad of doctors rushed to the patient's bedside with the Seith mage in tow and fixed the situation after a terrible quarter of hour. Before leaving they told their patient to keep the oxygen mask in place.

The situation seemed to have got calm again, but the tension was palpable. Evergreen started crying, she turned away from the bed, trying to hide it and calm down, not wanting to scare her friends, especially the sick one, but it was evident from her sobbing and sniffling. Bickslow immediately went and hugged her, but couldn't hold tears back either. Same for Freed. A feeble, muffled, broken voice came from the bed telling them not to worry, that everything would be alright. The tears were dried, but that wouldn't change the fact that the person in the bed was really sick and probably dying.

After another while, which they tried to spend as normally and as calmly as possible, the Raijinshuu had to go because the visiting hours were over. Laxus hid in a storage room nearby and got out of it as soon as the three friends left, visibly down. Freed was in the middle, with his head low and his bangs covering his face. He walked with his shoulders slumped and his arms slouching. He seemed to completely ignore Ever who was walking holding him in half a hug, her arms encircling his right one and her head resting on his right shoulder. She was biting her lip not to burst into tears again. Bickslow was on Freed's left. He had his arms crossed over his chest, seeming more nervous and scared than just simply sad. The blonde mage was undecided if he had to follow them. He wanted to console them, tell them that everything would be alright, like the man in the bed, but then he waited for a bit and opted to go into that room: if he had to cheer his friends up he at least had to know the reason why they were so sad. Plus, since the bed was turned to face the window, he'd basically stared all the time to its headboard unable to see who was inside it. And he was damn curious.

Getting closer to it he saw it and his blood froze in his veins.

Blonde short tufts of hair, dark circles around his eyes with an eyelash jutting outwards, square jaw, thick eyebrows...

It was him.

He was lying asleep, an oxygen mask covered the lower half of his tear-streaked face which had no lightning-shaped scar. The scars were elsewhere, Laxus could catch a glimpse of at least two on his chest, which probably joined together under the hem of his shirt, forming one single line. His body was very scrawny, he could see the bones under his skin. There was a machine that monitored his blood pressure and heartbeat and another which helped him to breathe. Many IV tubes were connected to his arms. He cringed because he hated needles and wondered if his other self did too. A half-filled catheter hung to the side of his bed. Utterly degrading. A sack was pumping some kind of pureed soup somewhere under his shirt. He took his medical record and read it. Laxus Dreher. He was affected by the same disease he had when he was a kid. The sack he'd seen was the only way to feed him, always if he didn't throw up. He often did. The tube was directly connected to his stomach through a hole above his belly button. It was necessary because his muscles had become too weak and he'd lost the necessary strength to do the smallest of movements and the capability to swallow. That way he risked to suffocate, even just with his own saliva, so they had found another system to feed him. As he had predicted, he was dying, doctors were just delaying things with medicines and other procedures. It said that he needed a tracheotomy to be able to breathe better, since his right lung was on the right track to collapse too, but that he refused to do the surgery. He thought it was kind of selfish and narcisistic, but Laxus felt extremely bad for his other self. Seeing himself like that had had a strange effect on him. It felt creepy and eye-opening. A sick twist of fate that wanted to show him what would have happened to him if he hadn't been implanted the lacrima. He shivered at the thought that that could have been his destiny.

His gaze left the medical record and fell on his other self. Just then he realized that he'd been stared at for a while. Edo-Laxus had his eyes wide and his mouth agape. It was visible even with the mask on. Earthland-Laxus took a mental note not o ever make that expression again. He looked quite dumb. "Before you ask anything: yes, I think we're the same person. No, I don't know what I'm doing here, nor how I arrived in this place. I think this is a parallel universe to mine. Yes, that's creepy for me too"

"You're not sick?" the other Laxus raised his head a bit so that the oxygen mask would fall on his chest and his interlocutor could hear him better. Only then Laxus could see how dry and cracked his lips were, he could even see spots of raw skin.

"No" he answered almost sadly.

"Oh..." he looked disappointed.

"Hey, don't be like this" Laxus tried to say it in a consoling manner, but actually didn't know if he had to feel offended.

"You don't know how this feels like" Edo-Laxus looked at him with his own orange, piercing eyes and that gave him goosebumps.

He sighed. "I do, instead. I've had your disease for a couple of years"

"Then how comes that you're healthy and I'm here, still sick?"

"Let's say that I was given something"

"A cure?" the bitterness from before had turned into hope.

"Sort of"

Since he received a very puzzled look he decided to explain how his father had found the Dragon Lacrima and had implanted it in his head. Laxus had always been grateful to his father for that gesture, especially as a boy. Now that he knew what he'd been saved from he was even more.

"My father has never been that enterprising, he just knew that being no doctor he couldn't do much, other than staying by my side. He's been there all the time, he's really great"

Laxus gave him a fake smile. In his life the part where Ivan was a good, loving parent was missing. He guessed he just had other ways of showing his affection for him or, in general, for anybody. His smile wasn't fake because of envy or something like that, he just thought that his sick self didn't need to know that little detail. After a brief moment of silence, the blonde mage asked, pretty embarassed: "So...umm...you and Freed?"

The other Laxus blushed a bright shade of red. "W-Well, I'm in love with him since the very first time I saw him and somehow, he loves me back" he stated simply, but his dreamy expression held much more sentiment.

"That's good for you"

"Are you and your Freed together too?"

Laxus had already noticed that in this universe everything was pretty much the contrary of how it was in his. That question though, made something click in his mind. "Holy shit"

The other Laxus chuckled and asked what was wrong.

"I think that my Freed might be in love with me. How could I be so dense?" he slapped his forehead in a comical manner.

"Noooo way" Edo-Laxus just burst out laughing.

"Oh, crap" he whined.

"Why don't you give him a chance?"

"I'm not sure, I've always hung out with women and I never imagined him as anything more than a good friend"

"Then I'm sorry for your poor Freed"

Laxus remained silent, a storm of thoughts, feelings and ideas raging in his mind, but it got interrupted by another coughing fit from the other Laxus. Laughing really wasn't the best thing he could do to his exhausted lungs. Before it could turn into something more serious the lightning mage put the oxygen mask back on his face. He hoped it would work.

The other Laxus muttered a "Thanks" not at all angry at his other self, but mad because of his condition. Earthland-Laxus heard him perfectly thanks to his superhearing and was pretty happy that the girly conversation was finally over. Now he wanted to talk about more serious matters.

"Why not the tracheotomy?"

He was still heaving, in a poor attempt at regaining his breath, but he managed to say: "It would be pointless". At Laxus's confused face he explained: "I'm dying anyway, so why prolonging all this?"

The lightning mage was taken aback. He'd always been used to fight for his life and whatever else he wanted, no matter how hard it was. It was weird to hear such a thing from himself. He honestly didn't know what to say, he felt as if he couldn't get what his other self was going through and, for that reason, that he couldn't say anything to make him change his mind. Nonetheless, he tried to understand. He hesitated before asking: "Are you...tired?"

"Partly, yes. This isn't a life. I'm stuck here in this bed, the only time I get out of it is when doctors need X-rays, CATs or NMRs. These fucking walls are smothering me. I'm going crazy. Freed and the others turned the bed so that I faced the window and could at least catch a glimpse of the outside, and they tell me stories and what happened during their day so that I can feel part of it and pretend that I was there. But it's not reality, I'm always here. I can't eat. Do you have any idea of how much I desire a piece of cake or a cheesburger? Instead I can't. I can't even properly make out with my boyfriend. I can't go to the bathroom, I can't fucking move. You call this living? Now they even want to deprive me of the little voice I have left. No thanks"

Those words had brought Laxus back to when he was sick too. It was a perfect description of his condition. He remembered feeling like him, with the difference that despite everything he had hope. Apparently the more time he spent in that condition, the more that hope diminished until it vanished completely.

"And what are the other reasons why you're letting yourself die?" he said in a feeble voice.

"My dad, Evergreen, Bickslow and, obviously, Freed"

"Do they want you to die?!"

"No, no" he smiled. "It's just that they're stuck here in this shitty place, in this shitty situation because of me. They come here everyday, just to stay with me. They love me and they want me to stay alive. You have no idea of how many times they tried to convince me to do what was better for me to survive? I might look like a depressed idiot who doesn't appreciate the gifts he's received, but I do. That's why I want to end this as soon as possible. I have to set them free"

"Do they know this?"

"No, of course not. They would be against it. But I know that it's the right thing to do. I've been selfish all this time. Countless times I contemplated breaking up with Freed, to give him the possibility to build a stable future with someone else, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I knew that he would have been here all the same with Ever and Bickslow and that the separation would have been much harder. Dad too. He deserves to let me go and move on. He's been worrying and crying over me for years. That's enough. I studied how all these machines work, to kill myself during the night and make it so that no one would know anything until someone found my corpse. But with the little strength my muscles possess even pulling a plug is impossible to me, let alone arriving to said plug. I can barely move my fingers and head and breathe"

"Are you really sure you want this for yourself?" Laxus was stoic now. What he'd been said...it was extremely sad. But he'd always admired that kind of determination. His counterpart nodded.

"I can help you"

"How?"

"You're not able to kill yourself. I can kill you"

"You really would do that for me?". It hurt to see how hopeful he was.

"If that's really your wish, then yes"

"Do it. Please" he was almost begging.

He took a sharp intake of breath. "What do I have to do?"

"Press that blue button on that machine that monitors my heartbeat and my blood pressure. There won't be alarms this way. Then close the valves of all these IVs. In the end unplug the mechanical ventilator. I'll die in a few hours"

"Will you suffer?"

"No, I will soon pass out. I won't feel anything"

Laxus locked the door and then did as he was instructed. His hands were shaking. Each action was like giving a stab to his counterpart. And to this conscience. When he was done, he sat next to the bed and took his other self's hand in his strong ones. It was cold already.

"If you change your mind, just tell me and I'll fix everything again, ok?"

Edo-Laxus made a poor attempt at squeezing his hand and smiled peacefully. He whispered: "Thank you"

He gave him a smile too, but it held no happiness.

It took hours during which Laxus had the time to think about what he'd seen and done that day. To regret it and then being forced to accept it because it was too late to go back. He observed as life slowly left his other self and cried. Not for the consequences that he could maybe encounter because of this murder, but because he'd felt a connection with himself and if at first he was sorry for his condition, now he was sad because he was dying. He wasn't sure if killing him had been the right thing. Who was he to take the life away from someone? He'd never killed, he had never truly had any intention to. But he'd been asked to. Was it right to listen to what could be the delirium of a dying person? Did he have to talk with his relatives and friends before? He didn't dare imagine what their reaction would be. God, what had he done? He let out a shaky breath and closed his eyes. The last remnants of life had left the body of his counterpart. It took a while for him to be able to let his hand go. He wiped away a stray tear and left.

It was almost sunrise when he got out of the hospital. He looked like a zombie. He felt like one. He knew he had to find a way to go back home, so he went towards the woods he'd come from, but that really was the last thing he was concerned about in that moment. He caught the scent of Evergreen, Bickslow and Freed in the cold night wind. In a few hours they would go to the hospital and find him dead. It didn't feel right to him to go away like that, without even apologizing or something stupid like that. Stupid because an apology couldn't make up for a murder or bring back the dead, but he had to give it a shot, be respectful. That sounded like an idiocy after what he'd done, but he went for it. He followed their scents and found a wooden house around 500 meters away. There, their scents intermingled with that of his father. He heard them talking about him, about what had happened earlier in the day. At 4 o' clock in the morning. He felt even more guilty. Nonetheless, he knocked on the door and was welcomed by 4 shocked faces.

"Laxus?"

"What are you doing here?"

"How are you even here?"

"What happened to you? Why are you so different?"

The flood of questions intimidated him further and he swallowed hard before saying: "I need to tell you something really important"

They made him go in and sat on the couch staring at him, all ears for what he had to say. He explained that he wasn't their Laxus, that, as crazy as it sounded, he probably came from a parallel universe where everything was the exact opposite of how it was there and that he and their Laxus were two separate people. After answering their questions he got to the serious part: "But that's not the point. I still have to tell you why I'm here. It's about Laxus"

If earlier they were attentively listening to him, now they were basically hanging on his every word.

"I was in the hospital earlier I saw his condition. He saw me. We talked and he told me that he wanted to die. I granted his wish" His face was emotionless as he spoke, he just said things mechanically, because, seriously, he was still too much in shock to have a normal response to what had happened.

He saw them watching him in disbelief then taking in his words and each had a different reaction. Evergreen started wailing, Bickslow silently watched him in pure hatred, Ivan was still in a daze, incredulous. Freed punched him, seeping rage. He accepted the punch with no hard feelings, he deserved it.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

He looked at him with a pained expression, he didn't have anything to say in his defence.

"DO NOT STARE AT ME LIKE THAT! YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING, HOW COULD YOU?!"

Another punch was about to connect with his jaw, but it was stopped mid-air by Ivan's intervention.

"That's enough Freed"

The green haired boy looked at him in a mixture of guilt and confusion.

"He didn't do it out of wickedness, he did it because Laxus asked him to"

"I didn't...know that...Laxus wan...ted...to...die" sobbed Evergreen.

"He was tired of the life he was leading. And he wanted to do something good for us"

"What? How could this be good?" asked Freed in tears.

"He wanted us to be free to live our lives without him dragging us down"

"He wasn't a drag. We loved him!"

"And he loved us. He did what was best for us"

"How do you know all this?" chimed in Laxus. His other self had said that no one knew anything.

"My father. He was the person that Laxus trusted the most. Before he passed away he told him this and in his deathbed he reported it to me, hoping that I would do what Laxus wanted"

"But Gramps died ages ago..." stated Bickslow thoughtfully.

They all thought that Laxus had been harboring all those feelings for that long and about all the times they'd tried to convince him to do what was best for his survival. But he didn't want to, because his wasn't a true life. They felt extremely selfish, forcing him to live hell because they didn't want to separate from him. That feeling enhanced knowing that he always thought about what would be good for them.

"You...have set him free. Thank you, son" Ivan patted Laxus's shoulder and tears gathered in his eyes. He let them spill as his father hugged him to comfort him.

That morning changed all of their lives forever. They all made peace with each other, with themselves and their inner demons.

It came the time for Laxus to leave. He got out of the house bidding his farewell to his friends and father's counterparts who were at the door waving goodbye. He took a few steps and got absorbed by another dark cloud. When he woke up again, he was back on Earthland.


End file.
